an unfortunate series of naked mishaps
by emletish
Summary: Katara and Zuko secretly seeing each other. They just want a little privacy. Is that too much to ask? Fate it would seem, has other ideas. a series of Naked Mishaps follows. Completed! Rated S for silly and N for nudity
1. Toph

Author note: so my brain is full of sillyness. If you didn't already guess that, this fic will be confirmation of my terrible sillyness. I am still working hard on Zuko and Katara's quest, but this little joyous plot bunny popped into my head and would not be silenced. It's about how Zuko and Katara are trying to keep their relationship a secret, but also trying to get it on as much as possible. Ah young, new love. Tragically, for our dynamic duo everybody finds out they are an item through a series of naked mishaps. I'll do all the important characters, in order of discovery. Toph is up first, because she is my favourite.

Without further ado.

*Whispered parts are in caps- so whisper them in your head*

Zuko and Katara were IN LOVE. But neither of them had been able to say it to each other just yet. Let alone announce it to their friends. They wanted to keep their relationship a SECRET, just for a little while. So they had been SECRETLY seeing each other and night and SECRETLY sneaking into each other rooms when they thought no one would notice. Because it was a SECRET. So don't tell anyone because it's a really BIG SECRET.

Naked mishap one! The mishap with Toph.

Toph was storming down the halls of the palace. She was furious. She couldn't believe those traitors. Aang and Sokka! Worried about her! Pfft! They should be worried about themselves when she got through with them. But first she had to see Sparky, just to clear something up. She was NOT going home anytime soon.

She'd over heard Aang and Sokka talking about her and wondering whether they should send her home to her parents. For Christmas. Because Sokka was worried that she never spoke about them, or wanted to write to them to contact them in any way. Family was important. It could be good for her to fix things with her parents. Pah! She didn't want to go home.

She thought Sparky would understand. He'd had one crazy overbearing parent that he didn't want anything to do with; surely he'd sympathize with her because she had two. Granted her parents weren't homicidal maniacs. But still. Sparky was boss of this place. He wouldn't make her go home. He would never do that to her, she was sure of it.

"Sparky I have to talk to you!" she announced as she earthbended the doors open. They swung closed behind her forcefully and there was an odd scraping noise when the popped lock slide against the wood. Oh Sparky had locked it.

There were two yelps of surprise and a lot of commotion. Sparky had company.

"Toph what are you doing here! " Sparky cried out in surprise.

"I have to talk to you." Toph said, hands on her hips.

"Well this isn't a good time right now. Can it wait? I locked that door for a reason." Sparky said sounding a little miffed. Toph could hazard a guess why. She knew who Sparky's guest was and all she could say about that was that it was about time already! She felt a little bad for interrupting them.

" oops. Sorry, Sparky. Sorry Katara." She apologized.

"What makes you think Katara's here?" Sparky said sounding apprehensive. She was blind, she wasn't stupid.

"I felt her feet a second ago, but I bet she's standing on the bed now. Because she thinks I won't be able to see her with my earthbending up there." There was a delicate sort of silence. "I'm right, aren't I?" Toph prompted.

"Look Toph, this is kind of awkward. Could you come back in like fifteen minutes and I promise what ever you want to talk to me about will get my full attention." Sparky said placatingly, but obviously wanting to get her out of the room.

"No, make it half an hour." Katara interrupted firmly. She'd stepped back down to the floor, obviously realizing that there was no point hiding from Toph on the bed, because Toph knew all. Her heart beat was fluttering like crazy and there was something off about the two of them.

" Are you two naked?" Toph always asked the blunt question.

"No, we were just, err, playing pai sho." Sparky offered. Bloody hell, how dumb did he think she was.

"You are such a liar."

When she came back in half an hour Sparky was there. Clothed she guess. He promised that he'd never send her home if she didn't want to go. All she had to do was promise to never tell anybody what she'd seen…err felt…no, sensed. Toph readily agreed. That's all she wanted, a promise that she wouldn't be sent home arbitrarily. She also figured that Uncle Iroh wasn't just anybody. He was Uncle Iroh and that made him exempt from such promises of secrecy. Zuko couldn't expect her to keep gossip this juicy from her pai sho partner.


	2. Iroh

Author's note: This is not strictly speaking a naked mishap, but it is a very, very close call. It may be a long time before Katara gives Zuko a similar sort of present.

Without further ado!

Naked mishap two! The mishap with Iroh.

It had to be drugs. Iroh was somewhat disappointed in his nephew. It was either drugs, or he was in love. No way could there be a new lady on the scene. Zuko was a terrible liar. Iroh could always see right through him. He could never keep something like that from his dear old uncle. Mind you, he had been sneaking off much more than usual. But that was probably to see his drug supplier.

Zuko had been down-right happy, for weeks in a row now. And it was downright disconcerting for Iroh. Because it was friggin weird. Zuko was smiling all the time, he whistled to himself, he even sang in the shower, loud enough for Iroh to hear, five rooms away.

It had to be drugs.

He was telling dear Toph about his drug theory over a game of Pai Sho. She was normally a patient listener but she kept trying to interrupt him. Eventually she flicked a rock at him to get his attention.

"It's not drugs, so don't worry." She said with a big smile. What did she know?

"What is it then, because the singing in the shower is really starting to worry me." No one should be able to murder _four seasons, four loves_ the way Zuko did. Iroh was momentarily glad his nephew had never expressed much interest in music night on the ship.

"He's just happy." She waved him over conspiratorially and whispered in his ear.

"He and Katara are totally doing it, I busted in on them naked this morning!" she whispered with a proud smile. Welly well well then. It wasn't drugs after all.

"But I'm not supposed to tell you, because it's a secret….so don't tell anyone else." Toph said. He smiled at her and gave her hair a little ruffle and promised her he wouldn't tell a soul. He would however have to have a conversation with his nephew.

_A few days later, on the auspicious morn of Zuko's birthday. _

He was happy, oh so happy, that his nephew had found a pretty girl who made him happy. Really he was. He didn't want to put a dampener on young love. Not at all. Still, he would need to have an awkward conversation with Zuko to impress upon his nephew the importance of being careful about these things. And to take the necessary precautions. These conversations were naturally awkward, and Zuko himself, had and almost infinite ability to make awkward situations worse.

He wanted to talk to him in private and hadn't been able to catch his nephew alone since Toph had told him that there were naked shennagins going on. Naturally he didn't want to interrupt said naked shennagins.

Iroh had been blessed with tact, which was a gene that had skipped many in his family right on by. He waited until he knew Zuko was out sparring with the young -water tribe warrior called Sokka. They'd been practicing their swordsmanship together. Zuko always came back at about 11 and had a break for approximately two hours. Iroh was willing to wait for him. Today was his birthday and Iroh wasn't about to let this day pass without them discussing this.

Iroh had given Zuko a Pai Sho set last night as an early birthday present. He sat down at the table and started arranging the tiles, coming up with strategies in his head and thinking about what he was going to say.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara was so clever. She was going to give Zuko the surprise of his life. He didn't want to make a big fuss on his birthday, she knew that. But that didn't mean he was getting out of the occasion with no presents. She'd gotten him a new dagger that had _never give up without a fight_ carved into the blade, because she knew how fond he'd been of his old one. But that wasn't his actual present.

She rearranged the bow slightly and shuffled about in the cupboard a little. It was nearly 11, so Zuko would be back any minute. Yes, Katara was _that _kind of secret girlfriend. She was going to give him herself, wearing only a ribbon and smile.

Zuko had gotten a fancy lock after Toph had so dramatically broken the last one. There were two keys. She had one that she wore on a long chain around her neck. She felt sure that she'd locked it properly, but she was about to find out that she was not as good at door locking as she believed. She heard the big double doors open and was about to burst out but managed to stop herself just in time. Those footfalls did not sound like Zuko's. She looked through the slates in the cupboard and saw Iroh sitting at the Pai Sho table.

Bollocks!

Katara was trapped now. She thought about trying to pull on some of Zuko's clothes, but her shuffling would make too much noise and alert Iroh to her presence. It would be better just to sit still and wait him out. He'd probably leave soon anyway.

0o0o0o0

"Uncle!" Zuko exclaimed as he opened his door to the sight of his uncle sitting at the pai sho table.

"Ah nephew, I've been meaning to talk to you." Iroh said happily as Zuko walked in. Zuko smiled at his uncle's enthusiasm. Uncle always greeted him enthusiastically, but it was a little weird for him to be in his room. He must have something serious to discuss.

"Okay, just let me get changed." Zuko called back. He was feeling all sweaty from sparring with Sokka. His uncle nodded and looked back at the game. Zuko wandered over to the far side of his room and opened the wardrobe and GAH!

Katara was in there.

And she was naked

Well not exactly naked, she had a bow…strategically placed.

She held her finger up to her lips and shook her head in Uncle Iroh's direction. Zuko understood that was the sign for get rid of him. Zuko hastily shut the cupboard door quick as lighting.

"Um… Uncle, would it be okay if you came back later?" he called out.

"No, I'd like to talk to you now." Uncle said and gestured at the other seat at the Pai Sho table.

"But it's not a good time now." Zuko urged.

"Nonsense! I know your schedule and I know you've got nothing else on at the moment! It's your birthday after all and I just thought we should make time for each other. We always used to talk." Uncle trailed off sadly.

"Umm okay. What did you want to talk to me about?" Zuko flashed an apologetic look back at the cupboard. His Uncle was laying it on thick so he figured listening to his Uncle's lengthy anecdote would be an easier, quicker way to get him out of the door than arguing with him about listening to his lengthy anecdote.

"About ladies and new… err special friends!" Uncle said with a big circular gesture. Zuko was momentarily horrified. His uncle had a lady friend? His uncle wanted to talk to him about his new lady friend. Oh gross. But Zuko loved his uncle and if he wanted to talk about it, Zuko would humor him.

"You have a lady friend?" He prompted.

"What? No? not me!" Uncle said suddenly, looking at him in surprise.

"Didn't you say you were going to change?" He asked and gestured at the cupboard.

"Err no, I decided against it. This is my favourite shirt." Zuko finished lamely. Uncle gave him a long look.

"Well, then. Okay…. I guess you know why I am here." Uncle said. Zuko really didn't know, but he figured saying yes would be a path to getting his uncle out of his room quicker.

"Tea is a really lovely beverage." Uncle began and Zuko was feeling a little confused. He knew Uncle loved tea but he thought they were talking about ladies.

"What does tea have to do with ladies?" Zuko asked, feeling a bit bemused.

"It has everything to do with ladies!" Uncle said empathically. Zuko decided at that point that it would just be easier to go with this.

"Okay then." He said in agreement. Uncle cleared his throat.

"Ah tea. It is nice to have. It is nice to share. But I'm sure you know this. I must press upon you the importance of using a strainer when making tea." Iroh said and gave him a meaningful look. Zuko didn't quite know what this look was meant to mean, but he knew that Uncle thought he was imparting some deep wisdom. Strainers? Tea? Where was his uncle going with this.

"Uncle, you taught me how to make tea properly in the teashop in Ba Sing Se. Remember? " Zuko said.

"Yes… well… that was teaching you about tea, but now I want to talk to you about **tea.**" Uncle said with a flourish that he seemed to think explained everything. Zuko was officially lost in this conversation. But his Uncle had not finished.

"Listen Zuko… Tea is great, and it is lovely when you discover a new variety that makes you happy. And I am happy for you to make such discoveries….And I know when you first discover a new variety you may wish to drink lots and lots of cups of tea. But it is important to remember certain things about straining tea. And we should strain tea because we don't want any unexpected surprises." Uncle said and gave Zuko another meaningful look. What was this conversation? Zuko didn't even know.

"Like those little lumpy bits of leaf that sometimes get though?" Zuko offered lamely.

"Okay…. if you want to call it that. Anyway as I was saying…" Uncle suddenly paused. Just at that moment a sneeze came, very audibly, from Zuko's cupboard.

There was a delicate pause

"Zuko, is there something you wish to tell me?" Uncle said gently.

"No" Zuko said quickly in a panic.

"I really think there is." Uncle said encouragingly.

"I really think there isn't." Zuko fired back, going a bit red in the face.

"Katara's in there, isn't she?" Uncle said serenely.

Bollocks! How did he know!

"No, she's not." Zuko said with his voice at a much higher pitch than usual.

"Well if she's not in there, you won't mind if I open the door." Uncle said logically and he made a move to get up. Zuko sprung, quicker than a cat, knocked over the pai sho table, his uncle and various other objects in his haste to fling himself in front of the cupboards. No one should see his girlfriend naked except for him…And Toph… that one time. Katara would be beyond mortified if Uncle saw her. Uncle would be beyond mortified if her saw her and awkwardness would reign supreme. Zuko stood with his arms out in front of the cupboard, shielding it from prying eyes.

"Actually, I think it would be a better idea if you didn't." He said evenly.

"What? Is she naked in there?" Uncle said jokingly. Zuko's eyes goggled in surprise. How did he know? Uncle goggled at him in surprise. Oh, he hadn't known, he'd only been joking and now Zuko had given it away with his face.

"Oh no! She is naked in there!" Uncle exclaimed before hastily adding. "I think I'd better come back another time. Zuko" he nodded at his nephew. "Katara" he said with a nod at the cupboard. He walked quickly out the door and paused for a second before he left.

"Oh and Zuko…and remember what I said about strainers." Uncle gave a parting wave and was gone.

Zuko feared he would never forget.


	3. Suki

Authors note: I think early-relationship-pretty-fication is a fact. Most lovely ladies, in my experience, discover an unknown love of facials and other beautifying procedures, sexy new outfits and daring little numbers, when there in a new man on the scene. Is this a scientific fact? No, but if I were a scientist, I could probably provide you all with some empirical data, but alas I am not! So I only have anecdotal evidence. This chapter is not implying that Katara will become a vain, shopping-obsessed flibbertigget , but just that she is in a new relationship and wants to look her best.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0

Naked mishap three! The mishap with Suki!

Katara and Zuko had very quickly and very sneakily relocated to her room. Katara had a bad feeling about Zuko's room at the moment. Maybe it had an interrupting curse put on it, because they had been interrupted twice! Iroh had successfully killed the sexy vibes in that room. Those vibes were deader than….something really dead. He had also managed to kill her good feelings about tea.

She would never look at tea strainer the same way again.

She had known exactly what Iroh had been getting at with his extremely labored tea metaphor. Zuko was still, obviously, a bit clueless. He'd actually thought he'd been in a conversation about tea and not, ya know, **tea.** She'd enlighten him after she'd given him his present. (She thankfully had a little water bending trick she knew that they were using for…tea straining… at the moment, so Iroh had no reason to worry on that front.)

They only had a little bit of time before Zuko would have to go off and do firenationy birthday related things. There was some sort of ceremony this afternoon that Zuko was dreading. Katara wanted to give him his present before then, to give him a boost. Zuko was very keen to get his present so this exchange of gifts would make everybody happy. Well everybody in her room at least.

They'd lost track of time and had gotten to the naked stage. Again. And there was much rejoicing. All she wanted was an uninterrupted canoodle with her boyfriend on his birthday. Was that too much to ask?

Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door.

Obviously it was.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Suki had nothing! Nothing! Nothing at all to wear to Zuko's birthday thing. What did you wear to a firenation birthday thing anyway? As a representative of her warriors, she wanted to make the right impression. She tried everything on in her wardrobe to no avail. Nothing looked quite right. She wanted to send the right message and so far, nothing had said "No hard feelings about burning down my village and I hope you have a great birthday."

A few items said "check out my fabulous breasts" (Sokka was immensely fond of those tops). Some other shirts sent the message: "Why yes! I do work out to get a stomach this flat." One rather daring little number said "cleavage for everyone!" But so far she had only worn that around Sokka and he'd been appreciative.

The point was none of her outfits would do and she didn't want to wear her Kyoshi Island warrior uniform if there was going to be booze available later. It was a bit too cumbersome for celebrating and sent the message that said "_I'll kill all you bitches!"_ Not the message Suki was going for at a birthday party.

She and Katara had been hanging out a lot lately. Maybe she could borrow one of her new dresses. Because she had many. A strange mood had settled on waterbender and she'd been wanting to look pretty, everyday. Not that she hadn't been pretty before, but she'd never really been overly focused on it.

Katara's sudden surge in vanity and wardrobe was probably closely tied to having a new boy on the scene. Sokka thought she was nuts. He was sure that if Katara had a new boyfriend she would have told him. Suki, however, had seen it before, from her warriors. A couple of dates and it was all "Does this top say _take me in a manly fashion_?" She called it early relationship pretty-fication in her head.

Katara had bought a really lovely purple silky one a couple of days ago. Suki had tried it on as well and it had fit her perfectly. That dress said "why yes, I am THIS fabulous." Katara would let her borrow that. They had a clothes sharing policy between them because they were both roughly the same size.

She walked over to the girl's room and knocked quite loudly on the door.

"Katara are you in there?" She called through the door. There was a shriek of surprise from indoors and a couple of thuds that sounded like somebody falling out of bed. Good she was in. There was a long silence and she heard Katara's voice say something that sounded suspiciously like "Maybe she'll go away." But Suki couldn't quiet make it out.

"I know you're in there, honey. This'll just take a sec. I need to ask you something. " Suki called through the door. The ceremony would start really soon and she just wanted to borrow a dress. It would only take a moment.

" Just a second." Katara called out sounding a little frantic. There was the sound of frenzied commotion and doors opening and closing, a bit of scuffling and schuffling. What was she doing in there? After a few moments the door opened. Katara stood there, her hair was sticking up all over the place. She was wearing a top that was both inside out and back to front. Her pants were in a similar state.

"Can I help you Suki?" She said brightly in what was a valiant attempt at sounding as normal as possible.

"Tell me you're not going like that to Zuko's party?" Suki said in surprise at her appearance. Here she was, worried about how she'd look to all the firenation snobs who would no doubt turn up at this thing, and Katara was just going to waltz in, looking half-wild, dazed and confused.

"Oh, no, I was just experimenting." Katara said evenly. Experimenting with what? Looking like a mad person who couldn't dress herself. Suki didn't have time for this. She was just going to be business like, grab the dress and go. Then Katara could get back to _experimenting _or whatever she had been doing. She was obviously a bit preoccupied. Suki wasn't judging but she didn't want to take up any more of Katara's time than she had to. The girl was in such a strange mood.

"Were you planning on wearing that purple dress with the things?" Suki said cutting straight to the chase.

"eerr ah, no." Katara said and seemed a little thrown by the question.

"Great! Can I borrow it?" Suki said as pushing past her and had strode over to the wardrobe in two quick strides. Katara kept her cupboard very neat and Suki knew she'd be able to find the dress in two seconds and then get out of here. Then they'd both have enough time to get ready.

She flung the doors open and was greeted by the sight of Zuko, naked, holding some sort of garment strategically. She shrieked! He shrieked! She slammed the doors closed as quick as lighting.

"Katara. I think Zuko is in your cupboard and he is in a state of undress. Just thought you should know." She said as she fled from the room. Fleeing really did seem like the polite thing to do. She was mortified! Why didn't she pick up on the clues that naked shenanigans were going on? Now she'd seen Zuko naked and she'd never, ever be able to unsee it again. Naked.

It actually hadn't been that bad a sight. All that firebending practice had done him _good._

What would she tell Sokka? Would she just bust out with_ I saw Zuko naked_!

_In your sister's room._

_Naked naked naked._

_Did I mention naked?_

She heard the sounds of running footsteps behind her. It was Katara, purple dress in hand and face red with embarrassment and exertion. Suki's face probably looked similar. She hadn't wanted to embarrass Katara. She wished there was an undo invention for life. A gadget where you could press a button and go back five minutes to_ before_ you'd seen you friend's boyfriend naked. Maybe she could ask Sokka to invent on for her and they could all pretend this never happened.

Katara held out the dress and started stammering about how it would be great if Suki would never tell ANYONE, but especially Sokka, what she had seen. Katara wanted to tell her brother in her own way. When she was ready. But for now they were trying to keep it a secret and it was all so new and do it for sisterhood and all that. She was going to give her the dress in exchange for her promise of silence. Suki gave her a little hug. She'd keep her secret, for a little while at least.

For sisterhood and all that.


	4. Sokka

Naked mishap four! The mishap with Sokka!

_A few days earlier…_

Sokka was a good older brother. He knew when something was up with Katara. And something was definitely up lately. She'd been weird for weeks now. Happy weird. Weirdly happy. That sort of thing. She'd barely bossed any of them about and she was being very affectionate and cheerful and, well kind of vain. Now she was always strutting about, looking fabulous and being happy weird and it was giving Sokka the creeps. Suki thought she must have a new boy on the horizon. She said girls always got a bit fluffy about there appearance when there was a new man involved. Sokka had scoffed at first, there was no way Katara could keep her big mouth closed long enough to keep an entire boyfriend a secret. But slowly, and with growing paranoia, he started to see the wisdom in Suki's words.

Who was it? It better not be that Haru kid with that dreadful mustache. Sokka didn't trust anyone with facial hair like that. Oh bloody hell, it would probably be some bad boy Jet wannabe and Sokka would have to go all older brother on his arse and threaten him good and proper, maybe rough him up a bit. Nobody messed with Sokka's sister, especially not now that he had his space sword back. He and Toph had gone back to look for it and she'd been able to sense it with her earthbending, and Sokka hadn't let it out of his sight since.

He'd asked Katara if she had a new man, but she'd been strangely coy and secretive. Then he'd asked her again and she'd been her normal disgruntled self. So Sokka decided to ask Zuko next time they were sparring. Zuko knew everything that went on in the palace, so if Suki was right and she did have a new man, Zuko'd tell him. They were bros. Maybe Zuko would even join him in scaring the bejeezus of this said new dude. Zuko was very protective of Katara, after all. He wouldn't want her dating some loser. And then it wouldn't just be Sokka who would be an overprotective jerk, when Katara inevitably found out and went off her nut.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

That afternoon, swords were flying and clashing.

"Zuko, can I ask you something." Sokka said as he parried a blow.

"Sure, what is it?" Zuko said breezily.

"Who's Katara's new fancy man?" Sokka said pointedly. Zuko dropped his Dao swords in surprise and just stared at him aghast. Yeah Sokka had the same reaction to the thought that Katara had a fancy man. How gross.

"Suki is sure that she must be seeing a new boy and I want to know who it is and Katara wont tell me. I figure you know everything that happens in the palace…" Sokka explained.

"What did Katara say when you asked her?" Zuko asked, his voice sounding a little higher pitched than usual, probably in surprise at the thought of Katara taking in another _fixer-upper,_ Sokka reasoned.

"She said it was none of my business." Sokka said looking down. She'd been a bit rude about it actually.

"Well maybe she'll tell you when she's ready." Zuko said reasonably.

"No! I need to know now." Sokka said forcefully.

"Why do you need to know so badly?" Zuko asked, giving him an odd look.

"So I can find the jerk who's messing with my sister and tell him that if her jerks her around I'll kill him and make it look like an accident. And then rough him up a bit." Sokka said and made a big fist and punched his palm, to symbolize the roughing up. Zuko went a bit white then.

"Um, I don't really want any murders or roughing up in the palace at the moment Sokka." Zuko said quickly, looking alarmed. Zuko was trying to keep drama at the palace to a minimum now that he was Firelord. Sokka respected that.

"Okay, as an early birthday present to you, when I find out who it is, I wont murder them… but I can't promise I wont rough 'em up a bit." Sokka said magnanimously. Zuko didn't seem as happy with this compromise as Sokka hoped he would be.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_The morning after the auspicious occasion of Zuko's birthday. _

Zuko gave her a long kiss before he left to train Aang in firebending. They were trying to stick to their normal schedules so that nobody (aside from a few notable exceptions) would suspect anything. And for Zuko, his regular schedule meant getting up ridiculously early to go swish fire at Aang. They squeezed in time together here and there during the day, but mostly they were together at nights. Katara would slink with all the stealth she had to Zuko's Room.

Last night they'd eventually managed to abscond from the party together. They'd slipped back here after the party and Katara had finally been able to give him his present. Finally. It had been awesome.

She should sneak back to her own room now and get a bit more sleep, she knew that. She picked up one of Zuko's shirts and tossed it over her head. She'd been borrowing bits of his clothing ever since they got together. She was a bit embarrassed to admit it, but she liked the way his clothes smelled of him. If she couldn't go to sleep next to him, she could at least enjoy having his smell around her. So far she'd absconded with five shirts. This would be her sixth. She'd probably return some of the other five. They were starting to loose their Zuko smell anyway.

She closed the door gently behind her and started to walk away… only to find she couldn't. The shirt was wedged in the door. The lock had clicked into place and Katara had left her key inside.

Bollocks!

Katara tried to wedge it open, but it was a state-of-the-art lock. Zuko had spared no expense after that incident with Toph. The lock wouldn't budge at all. And the shirt was jammed in tight between the doors. She contemplated just abandoning the shirt and doing a nudie run back to her room. No, way to risky, and she wasn't quiet that desperate yet. And enough people had seen her naked this week. Surely if she just pulled hard enough…

Come on you friggin shirt.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sokka was up early. He was going to find Zuko after he finished firebending training and get him on side for _operation threaten Katara's new boyfriend_. He was 78% sure it was Haru, and that was good enough for him. Haru just wasn't good enough for his sister and…. he had an evil mustache…. that he would twirl….. when he inevitably went evil and left her high and dry. So Sokka was perfectly justified in his mission. The mission would take planning and stealth. Zuko could be pretty stealthly and Sokka knew he'd be on board with giving Haru a good scare.

He heard the soft sounds of Katara swearing coming from the Royal corridor. It was unusual for her to be up so early. She liked a sleep in. It was downright weird for her to be up so early and in the royal corridor, swearing like a sailor.

As he turned round the corridor he was greeted by the sight of Katara wearing one of Zuko's shirts. It looked like the shirt had gotten stuck in the door. She lifted her leg to place it against the door, to give herself more leverage as she tugged at the shirt. Sokka realized, with no small amount of horror, that she was naked under shirt.

Many thoughts went though his mind quiet quickly, the most prominent of which he called out.

"Katara what the bloody hell are you doing?"

Katara turned around, saw him, swore again, and dropped her leg and the shirt. She pulled the shirt down a little lower to cover herself. Thank goodness.

"I'm just a bit stuck." She said a little ruefully.

"A bit stuck….in Zuko's door… at 5 am…wearing only his shirt" Sokka listed all the obvious facts about the situation. A realization hit him like a tone of bricks. "Zuko's your fancy man!" he yelled.

"Will you keep your voice down!" Katara admonished loudly. Sokka did. If he were in her situation, he probably wouldn't want to attract undue attention either. Still he grinned at her teasingly and whispered softly. "Zuko and Katara sitting in a tree… K-I-S…"

"As soon as I get out of this door, I'mma smack you." Katara said giving him a glare.

"Do you want some help with that?" Sokka said gently. He could tease her a lot more, but she was his baby sister and he care more about her modesty and getting her out of this situation than he did about making her go red faced and pissed off. He examined where the shirt had gotten stuck and pulled. They both pulled together.

"You and Zuko.." he muttered under his breath, a little disbelievingly. Truth be told he was a little relieved, mostly because he liked Zuko and didn't feel the overpowering urge to beat him up.

"What, you want to go beat him up now." Katara hissed. "Oh yeah! I heard about your little plan to beat up my boyfriends." She added crossly.

"Look that was only when I thought you were going out with a hairy jerk." Sokka said a little defensively. He maybe a bit over protective, but Katara was his only sister, and even though she was an amazing waterbender who could look out for herself, he still wanted to look out for her if she needed him to.

"Who did you think I was going out with?" Katara asked with a quirk of her eyebrow.

"That Haru guy, with the mustache." Sokka supplied. Katara made a face.

"Haru! I have better taste than that." She said a little insulted.

"Oh and by better taste, you mean Jet!" sokka teased.

At this Katara gave him a playful slap upside the head. "Look can you stop being a giant jerk and just help me." She said a little frantically. Sokka had an idea, He got out his space sword and wedged it in the door and applied a bit of force. He looked down at her and smiled a little.

"Look Katara… you and Zuko, I'm okay with that really. " He said gently as he prized the lock apart from the inside. Katara was able to slip out the door. A look of relief washed over her face.

"Thanks Sokka. Really." She said and smiled at him widely. Whether she was saying thanks about the door, or thanks for not being a jerk about Zuko, Sokka wasn't sure. Maybe she was saying thanks for both. She smiled up at him. She would always be his baby sister, and he hated the thought of any boy treating her badly. But for some reason, he didn't mind so much that she was with Zuko. Sokka knew that Zuko'd be good to her. If her behavior for the past little while was anything to go by, he was obviously making her happy.

And that's all that Sokka wanted for her.

That and for her to go and put some pants on.

As soon as possible.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0

Authors note: Yes, it comes at the bottom this time. Of course after this exchange, when Katara goes off to get some pants, Sokka will go off and find Zuko and mess with his head a little. At this point Zuko doesn't know that Sokka knows. That incident will be full of hilarity, but nobody will be naked and so it has no place here! It is a fic for another time my lovelies.

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed! You guys are all kind of brilliant!


	5. Aang

Naked mishap five! The mishap with Aang.

_The day after the auspicious occasion of Zuko's Birthday. _

_Late afternoon._

That had been the weirdest party Aang had ever been too. Aang knew a thing or two about parties. It was, like his job, as the Avatar, to be great at parties. Zuko was not great at parties. Who tries to sneak away from their own birthday anyway? It was weird. But then again Zuko had been acting really weird lately. He'd been so mellow lately. Normally Zuko would drill forms with him and be all 'twenty round house fire blasts, followed by 30 swivel kicks. NOW!' But for the past few weeks he'd been, well super easygoing.

Last night though, he'd caught Zuko trying to escape his own party or hide from his own party at least five times. He'd started hiding or making breaks for freedom as soon as it was polite to do so. Once he'd been hiding in the curtains. Katara had been there too, she told him she was helping Zuko hide. Aang helpfully pointed out that it was easier to hide one person behind the curtains and Katara was actually being a hindrance to the hiding process. She'd made a funny face at him then, like she was cross at him, but why would she be? He was just trying to help. She obviously wasn't listening because he caught her trying to hide Zuko twice more.

Katara had so much to learn about hiding.

Once Zuko had tried to sneak out the main doors but had been pulled by Aang and his Uncle into conversation again. He kept looking longingly out the door and it was distracting to try and talk to someone when they had _that _expression on their face. Uncle Iroh kept talking about tea and Aang got bored of the conversation and wandered off. Tea wasn't that interesting.

Later, Zuko made a break for the backdoor in the kitchen. But Sokka and Aang had been there getting stuck into his cake. Zuko said he didn't want any cake, which was weird in itself, but Sokka and Aang had peer pressured him into staying. Katara had come into the kitchens a little while after that, and Zuko had said "We're eating cake now." as if there were a million other things he wanted to do more than eat cake. Who hated eating their own birthday cake anyway?

Later, when the full desert thing, with the fruit and the cheeses and the strong sweet wine, had been wheeled out, he'd gone looking for Katara with one of her favourite pastries. He felt like he should apologize for something, but he didn't know what. She'd been snappy with him all night. He'd found her under a table with a long tablecloth with Zuko. She'd been trying to hide him again. Katara should just stop helping Zuko! Couldn't she see she was making it hard for him to hide? Aang took her outside and gave her some advice on better hiding techniques.

Zuko must have buggered off at some point because by the time they had gotten round to the speeches He'd vanished and no one could find him. Or Katara either. Maybe she'd taken Aang's advice and gotten better at hiding Zuko.

All in all, it had been a weird party anyway. He'd had a good time. Suki had gotten fairly drunk and did a complicated fan demonstration. He'd gotten a little drunk with Toph. He'd had a very weird conversation with uncle Iroh, who was talking about tea again. Sokka had asked him to help beat up Haru, but Aang had declined, because he was trying to be Zen and non-violent.

Mostly he was worried about Zuko. He didn't seem to have had a nice birthday and Aang wanted to cheer him up. Aang had been practicing all day to master a particularly difficult fire-bending form called the _flying Pheonix._ Zuko had said it was okay if he didn't get it first time, all he had to do was practice. Well Aang was going to surprise Zuko with how good he'd gotten. When he ran through the forms again and was able to do it perfectly without making any mistakes, he yipped in joy and scooter off to find Zuko. Seeing Aang do it perfectly would definitely cheer his Firebending Sifu up.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara and Zuko were have a little naked snuggle now that they finally had a bit of time together. They shouldn't be disturbed for the rest of the night. They'd exchanged gifts again and it had been brilliant! Zuko was feeling on top of the world. He was feeling like he could erase yesterday and all its naked shenanigans from his head and go out and face the world again. Katara lay with her head on his chest, tracing little patterns with her fingers.

"Sokka knows."She said simply.

"Knows what?" Zuko asked.

"About us." She said. Oh that explained so much about this morning. So very much.

"Well, now that's four people who know." Zuko replied.

"No, only three." Katara countered, she had probably erased at least one of their naked mishaps from her memory. Probably the one with his Uncle, Zuko would do anything to erase that memory.

" Nah, Toph, My uncle, Suki and now Sokka." Zuko listed on his fingers.

"Still, it's more people that I would like who've seen me naked." She said lazily as she gave a little stretch.

"It's more people than I would like to see you naked too." Zuko said with a smile. He liked to think that the naked was just for himself.

"Maybe we should just stay clothed the whole time?" Katara offered.

"Don't say that!" Zuko said, vaguely horrified, he'd gotten kind of fond of the naked.

"I was just kidding anyway." Katara said with a cheeky grin and started tickling him, which inevitably lead to rolling about naked together, which would have lead to another exchange of gifts but Katara had something she wanted to discuss first.

"We should probably tell Aang. Everybody else knows now and he'll be miffed if he finds out, especially if he finds out that everybody knows before he does. He'll feel left out." She said uncertainly. It was probably a good idea. He would find out eventually and them telling him would be much better than the other alternatives.

" I want to tell him before he barges in on us naked." Zuko said in response.

"What makes you think he'll barge in on us naked?" Katara said bemusedly. Had he just imagined yesterday? Surely she'd been there for all the naked mishaps.

"Look at our luck so far…" he said, trailing off.

"Good point. You know I used to have pretty good luck before I started going out with you and now people catch me naked everyday. " Katara said playfully.

"I actually think I've had pretty good luck since I started going out with you." Zuko said sincerely. Katara smiled, almost to herself, and then looked up at him quite cheekily with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh you are so being rewarded for that one." She said as she started to move her body languorously. Zuko liked where this was going!

"We need a new lock by the way." Katara said as she started kissing a trail of kisses down his chest.

"Again?" Zuko asked a bit surprised. He'd only just replaced it a couple of days ago.

As of to prove Katara's point, it was precisely at that moment that Aang burst in on his air scooter, full of excitement. He scooted around the room not really noticing the compromising position he'd found his two friends in. Katara had hidden under the covers, quick as a flash. And now it looked like Zuko had a very odd shaped growth coming out of his torso.

"Zuko, I did it! I practiced all day yesterday and today and I've perfected it. Come see. " Aang said brightly.

0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o

Bloody hell!

Bollocks!

Not again!

They'd just been getting to the good bit!

What do we have to do to get some privacy around here! Katara thought crankily. Bloody Aang and bloody firebending and bloody everything. It was her time with Zuko now and she didn't want to share him. She didn't get to spend nearly enough time as she'd like with him and whenever they got a chance to… err… exchange gifts, they kept being interrupted. And it was making her extremely cross.

As she hid under the covers, she came to a realization, quick as a flash. Why was she hiding from Aang anyway? It was better to tell him now; he was going to find out anyway. She made her decision and popped her head out from under the covers.

"He can't right now Aang." She said firmly.

"Katara?" Aang's eyes were the size of dinner plates.

"Yes. Congrats on the phoenix form. But in future remember to knock before coming in." She said in a very brisk and businesslike fashion. Aang started beating a hasty retreat.

"Sorry guys. Wont happen again." Aang said as he sped out the door faster than she knew the air bender could move.

They were alone at last. She got up, and put a chair in front of the door behind Aang. There, makeshift lock. They'd just been a little too _keen _earlier to think of it. She turned to Zuko, thinking entirely naughty thoughts. Zuko grinned up at her; he was probably thinking naughty thoughts as well.

"Now, where were we?" She asked in her sultry voice.

******** The End*******


End file.
